The sheer number of attacks on websites and blogs worldwide is increasing on a daily basis, and things are getting worse.
It’s safe to assume that if you haven’t been hacked yet, then it’s only a matter of time.
On March 11, 2014, technology sites like Cnet.com began reporting that 162,000 WordPress websites had been hacked.
Thousands of websites and blogs are hacked every year! Will yours be one of them?
(Screenshot source: Blog Defender)
According to the Cnet report,
“With some old-fashioned trickery, hackers were able to get more than 162,000 legitimate WordPress-powered Web sites to mount a distributed-denial-of-service attack against another Web site.”
(Source: cnet.com/news/ddos-attack-is-launched-from-162000-wordpress-sites)
As described by security firm Sucuri, hackers had leveraged a flaw to attack unsuspecting WordPress sites and direct a distributed-denial-of-service cyberattack (DDoS) towards another popular website.
Every website or blog with a security vulnerability can present an opportunity to hackers. A compromised web site provides malicious users with a platform for distributed attacks, spreading malware and engaging in information theft.
If someone can find a security weakness that allows them to remotely take control of your blog, that blog can then be employed as part of a larger network of “bots” to target larger and more highly-valued sites.
The reality is that hackers are most likely trying to hack into your website or blog as you are reading this article. Whether they will be successful will depend on how hard or easy you have made it for hackers and bots to continue trying until they either can discover how to get in, or are forced to give up and go look for a less secure target.
How Much Information About Your WordPress Site Are You Broadcasting To Hackers?
Does your website run on WordPress? If so visit a site like Hackertarget.com and run your website through their WordPress security check …
(WordPress Security Check Screenshot: https://hackertarget.com/wordpress-security-scan)
You will see that the check returns a number of results and information about your WordPress site …
(WP security scan results. Product image: Hackertarget.com)
It should be obvious after using the tool shown above that if you are able to access all of this information, so can hackers.
(Screenshot: BlogDefender site)
The ability to see what version of WordPress you are using, which plugins and themes you have installed on your site, and which files have been uploaded to certain directories can be potentially valuable information to hackers, as these can inform them about any potential holes or weaknesses, especially in older versions.
Fortunately, there is a way to stop broadcasting all of this information about your website and protect against other malicious threats.
Blog Defender
Product Description
Blog Defender is a package of WordPress security video tutorials, plugins and tools, plus a WordPress security PDF/DOC file.
Matt Garrett, the creator of BlogDefender began developing BlogDefender after noticing that a WordPress site he set up for his mother got hacked into. This blog was new and had literally nothing of value to offer, yet it was still attacked.
Matt only became aware of what had happened after being suspended by his host and seeing that a significant amount of suspicious activity had taken place inside the site, as well as the addition of a number of phishing files by whoever had broken into the site.
(Image source: BlogDefender.com)
Matt’s experience provides the valuable lesson that all websites are valuable to hackers.
Blog Defender shows you where potential security holes in your WordPress site are …
And let’s you quickly and easily fix these …
Plugins
Blog Defender includes three plugins for WordPress:
The first plugin in the Blog Defender product suite provides automated backups …
(Screenshot image: BlogDefender site)
Plugin #1 “Automated Backups” lets you do automated site and file backups to your server, third-party servers and leading cloud-based backup solutions using different backup methods, perform full or partial backups, exclude tables or files from your backups, restore previous backups, replace URLs (for site migrations), search and replace text strings in your WordPress database, perform malware scans and blacklist checks automatically, and more.
Plugin #2 provides WordPress security …
(Source: BlogDefender.com)
Plugin #2 performs a range of vital site security functions (see “Blog Defender Features” section below).
Plugin #3 lets you scan your files and content to see whether code in your files has been tampered with, and repair any problems it finds …
(Source: Blog Defender)
Pro Plugin #3 “WP Scan & Repair” also scans content to see if any malicious content have been inserted into your site, bans bad bots, blocks brute force attacks and detects any content leeching (where people benefit from your content without reciprocating the favor).
Videos
In addition to plugins, Blog Defender also includes 7 training modules in video format and training guides that will teach you exactly what to do to protect your site from malicious users …
(Screenshot source: BlogDefender.com)
Learn more here:
Benefits Of Using Blog Defender
Below we have listed just a few of the benefits of using Blog Defender to make your WordPress site invisible to hackers and botnets on your website:
Quick And Simple To Install And Implement
The Blog Defender plugins are quite easy to install. Just upload them to your Plugins folder via your administrator account and activate.
Simple And Easy To Follow Training
Blog Defender is an easy-to-follow do-it-yourself step-by-step training product that guides you through the website security process and shows you what to do, including how to set everything up, and even which WordPress plugins you can install for free to get things done.
Additional benefits of using this plugin include:
- Protect your WordPress website from hackers, spammers, botnets, data mining tools and malicious users attempting to ruin your business for their own personal and financial gain.
- Protects Intellectual Property From Theft – If your site sells an info product (e.g. downloadable e-books, video training, etc.), your product can end up becoming freeware on peer-to-peer sharing sites.
- Avoid Getting Blocked By Your Host – When a site is hacked, you can expect to go through a whole lot of inconvenience and heartache. It can take days to uncover problems and sort through the issues these have caused. As a result, your, site could get closed by your host, or even deindexed in search engines. And if this isn’t painful enough, your personal contacts could end up being spammed, your subscriber list and financial details could be stolen, you could be fined or even charged with fraud, and more.
Blog Defender Features
Blog Defender provides a number of features to WordPress users.
Blog Defender addresses the following issues:
- Host Security Advisory
- WP Plugin Security Audits
- Theme Security Audits
- Anti Brute Force Security
- Anti Cross-Site Scripting
- MySQL Database Security
- Nefarious Traffic Blocking
- Hiding WordPress ‘Tell Tale’ Signs
- Anti-Comment Spam
- File Monitoring
- Track Links
- Blocking Known Offenders
- Automating WordPress Updates
- WordPress Security Audit
- Tightening Server Security
- Kick Out Policy
- Reputation Checking
- And More …
Blog Defender uses a logical process for securing your site, addressing potential hosting security issues, using tools to identify risky WordPress themes and WordPress plugins, and then helping you implement site-wide security using the tools and plugins provided.
(Blog Defender website security process. Screenshot: BlogDefender.com)
User Feedback
Here are just a few of the testimonials that users have submitted for the Blog Defender product:
”Don’t make the mistake of thinking you’re too small or not important enough to be hacked! I’ve found out that I’ve had bots in the backend of my sites, making alterations and changing things around, so there’s no telling what damage they’ve caused. I’ve had my main blog for over 3 years now, and the thought of losing all the hard work I’ve put into it is just devastating, not to mention costly! I have a shared hosting plan, so of course once they can get into one site, they can also access the others. Luckily, I now have the procedures detailed within Blog Defender in place so that I can prevent the majority of this ever happening again. Once you’ve secured one site it gets a lot quicker to secure all subsequent sites. With Blog Defender, you get easy-to-follow videos, along with a detailed checklist that you can downloadf. You are literally walked through the process of securing your blog against hackers, which has given me real peace of mind. This is a growing issue that all website owners are facing; so it isn’t going to go away. Prevention is better than cure, particularly as some of the nastier hacks around can literally ruin your business. So do yourself a favour – get your sites protected now, before it’s too late.” Nikki Stephens, www.nikkistephens.com
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”A top level force against hacker attacks!” Micheal Nicholas, Impact Info Marketing
Useful Tips
According to the plugin developer, since Blog Defender was first released, no Blog Defender-protected websites or blogs have been hacked.
Matt Garrett, the product developer also states on his site, however …
“With the volume of attacks nowadays … we probably won’t hold forever, so we’ve been busy creating even tougher WordPress security.”
Cybersecurity is an ever-escalating arms race and all security solutions are only as good as the knowledge and tools that developers can currently get their hands on. The latest release of Blog Defender provides users with an easier security solution that doesn’t require constant attention, is quite inexpensive and it’s as good if not better than most premium security products or services currently being offered at a higher price.
Blog Defender Plugin Support
The product is well-supported, can be used by both Mac and PC users, is compatible with the latest WordPress release and is backed by a no-risk, thirty day, full refund guarantee.
Product Licensing Cost
Blog Defender is normally available with a personal license only for use on unlimited sites. When we last checked, however, it was also being sold with Developer rights, allowing users to secure client sites as well.. Price = $47.00.
Note: The cost of purchasing the Blog Defender product depends on whether there are any promotions or limited-time special offers. The above reflects the pricing at the time this content was written. This may not be the actual price set by the plugin developer when you visit the product website and there may be additional upsells or one-time offers after you’ve purchased.
Check the plugin’s website for the current pricing:
Additional Information
For installation instructions and tutorials, FAQs, customer help desk, contact details and more, visit the Blog Defender website.
The Bottom Line
No matter what kind of business you run or plan to run online and how small you think your web presence is, you cannot afford to ignore the importance of securing your website or blog.
WordPress is a very secure web platform, but neglecting basic maintenance tasks like keeping your WP core files, WordPress plugins and WP themes up-to-date, tightening file and data security and taking other necessary precautions can have disastrous consequences.
Blog Defender helps you understand what’s going on in your site and where the vulnerabilities are, what hosting companies can and can’t do if your sites are attacked, what security features to look for in a webhost, and which tools can make the process of securing your WordPress website easier.
For complete details, check out the plugin here: Blog Defender
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